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What’s your Teen Librarian Reading Now?

The Field Library is proud to announce our First Annual Ornament Decorating contest!

If you like getting crafty and working with your hands, enter to be in the running for the Best Teen Ornament and win a fantasticchocolate-yprize when your ornament is voted #1!

You can pick up your blank ornament starting December 8th, and you’ll have until December 17th to bring in your completed creation. Judging will occur from the 18th to the 21st, and winners will be notified on the 22nd!

Do you like fairytales retold? Perhaps you liked Cinder? Ella Enchanted? But you really wanted something set in this time period?

Enter Sarah Porter’s Vassa in the Night, a retelling of the Baba Yaga myth. Set in an alternate Brooklyn to our own, Vassa is living with her not-so-cruel step sisters, but they definitely aren’t nice all the time to each other. On a night when all the lights have gone out in their home, Vassa is manipulated into taking a trip to the new dancing 24 hr convenience store owned by Babs Yagg.

No one seems to care that she beheads shoplifters, and lately those merely accused of shoplifting, but it’s Vassa’s only option. If she wants to survive this late night errand, she’ll need some help, and luckily she’s got something up her sleeve to help, or more accurately, in her pocket. A living doll given to her by her deceased mother. But are one small doll and one teenage girl enough to break the curse over Brooklyn?

This book reads like a topsy-turvy dream, and is well-paced. It does require a little extra suspension of disbelief, but the characters are memorable, as is the story. Perfect for readers that want a little more modernity in their fractured fairytales.

Are you working on your college applications? Need an extra set of eyes to look over your essays? Your resume?

Teen St. Station is proud to offer you the services of Susan Thames. She is an honored author with an extensive background in writing, editing, and publishing books and articles for all kinds of audiences; and she is here to help you!

Keep an eye out for her first appearance on Wednesday, November 30th from 3-5:45 in the teen section.

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The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid is the book you’ve been looking for, but didn’t know you were missing from your life. Perfect for readers looking for fantastic pacing that begs you to immediately start the next chapter, and for readers who like a balance between character and plot driven narratives. Impossible for this reader to put down.

Equal parts interstellar political drama, challenges to authority and the powers that be, and action, with a dash of (plausible) romance thrown in that helps move the plot along, you’ll be cheering for Nemesis as she learns to live in the dangerous political atmosphere of the Galactic Court.

Nemesis is a Diabolic; a super-strong, combat oriented humanoid creature with a singular purpose in life: protect her owner Sidonia at all costs. After being imprinted on Sidonia, she’s lived her whole life as a psuedo-sister to the girl, careful to keep her safe from any harm. She was not trained for court life, but after Sidonia is requested as a political hostage to blackmail her rebellious father into behaving in the Senate, Nemesis is sent in her place. Keeping her true nature and identity a secret is of the utmost importance though, because Diabolics have been outlawed, and any mess-ups that Nemesis is involved with in the court could jeopardize everything for her and, more importantly, for Sidonia.

As rebellion comes closer and closer to being a reality, Nemesis must learn who she can trust in a place filled with two-faced politicians and their power-hungry children. The shred of humanity she feels she has is all that fuels her amidst the danger, action, and intrigue of the court. Her humanity might be the only thing that can save the empire too. Can a Diabolic do that though?

Here are some quick picks for web comics that are great for some speedy summer reading.

The Well by the House on the Hill by Mari Costa“The Story:If you haven’t read anything yet:The Well by the House on the Hill is about a young girl named Marie who loves umbrellas very much and who was hired to babysit some children in a house.

If you’ve read past the prologue:The Well by the House on the Hill is about a couple of ghosts trying to move on. Whatever that entails!”
-http://www.maricomics.com/twbthoth-about

Written with a sharp wit and a keen eye on literature and history, Kate Beaton’s web comic is sure to entertain those looking for off-beat humor. It is not a sequentially oriented comic, so hitting “random” on her page will give you a great idea of her scope of topics she covers. She does have an index/archive of her pages.

Two princesses, “big-boned” Sadie who’s stuck in a tower, and daring Amira- a renegade from her court, meet and fall in love on their way to finding adventure and escape. Beautiful colors and soft style, reminiscent of Adventure Time, and a unique retelling of classic fairytale tropes.

Self described as “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language,” XKCD is a witty and often takes a black comedy approach to life with moments of light comedy. Similar to Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant, this is an ongoing non-sequential comic that uses stick figures as a visually minimal approach to their humor. An archive of various comic topics is available. If you like science and math jokes, critiques on pop culture and trending topics, you will probably enjoy this comic.

“Pretty Heart Bouquetis an ongoing magical girl web comic about a cute girl named Ginny, a mysterious cat named Beck, and a reluctant mentor named Lilly. It currently updates once a week on Fridays.” (http://prettycomic.tumblr.com/about)

A self-written, self-starring comic, also co-starring her cat, Spoons, Abby Howard’s black and white ball-point style co-mingle with her humorous takes on incidents that happen in her everyday life. If you watched the web series Strip Search, then you will probably be familiar with her work already. Non-sequential story arcs, so you can pick up just about anywhere in the comic.

“Alastair Sterling was the inventor who sparked the robot revolution. And because of his sudden death, he didn’t see any of it.
That is, until he wakes up 16 years later in a robot body that matches his old one exactly. Until he steps outside and finds a world utterly unlike the one he left behind – a world where robots live alongside their human neighbors and coexist in their cities. A world he helped create.
Now Al must track down his old partner Brendan to find out who is responsible for Al’s unexpected resurrection, but their reunion raises even more questions.
Like who the robot living with Brendan is. And why she looks like Al. And how much of the past should stay in the past…” (http://ohumanstar.com/about/)

Beautifully rendered in blue tones for present story line and red tones to indicate the past, this is a powerful story about life, purpose, and consequences featuring two reconciling partners and inventors.

“What happens when three roommates accidentally acquire powerful magic weapons destined for someone else? What happens when the aforementioned ‘someone elses’ fall from grace and public favor in the aftermath? What happens when you’ve suddenly found yourself as the hero to someone else’s story…?” (http://thesubstitutescomic.com/about)

“balderdash! tells the story of two witch girls and their friends in the small town of Löffel. We first follow Georgie, a young witch from an elk ranch on the outskirts of Xalé. Georgie ventures from her home in the Northern Mountains to the River Valley, where she hopes to train under her idol, the baker Fausto. At the same time, we follow the young witch Afia, a young scholar from the large capital city Bakunini. After an academic debacle, Afia leaves her home in the South to go to the River Valley and learn about the mysteries of High Magic on her own.” (http://www.balderdashcomic.com/about)

What happens when you’re a witch doctor as a teenager, tasked with keeping things in balance or horrible monsters and mayhem ensue? Baron’s life has been tough, especially with his sister’s disappearance, and life just keeps throwing curve balls at him. Told through action-packed panels and brilliant coloring, the first volume of Vibe is available to read online.

“In the witch kingdom Hyalin, the strength of your magic is determined by the length of your hair. Those that are strong enough are conscripted by the Witch Guard, who enforce the law in peacetime and protect the land during war. However, those with hair judged too long are pronounced enemies of the kingdom, and annihilated. This is called a witch burning.

Witchy is the story of a young witch named Nyneve. Terrified of the Guard, and of being enlisted, she hides her long hair from everyone but her mother.” (http://witchycomic.com/about/)

Soft color palette with a similar scratchy style to Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona, this comic is quick to pull you in and have you asking questions.

“Bad Bad Things is a dystopian horror coming of age story about magic, friendship, adventure and shitty teenagers doing the best they can. Updates every monday and some fridays!

This comic is going to include some potentially upsetting themes, so proceed with caution! If this is a problem for you, our tumblr provides content warnings with each update that needs them.” (http://www.badbadthingscomic.com/news/)

“Rock and Riot follows the tales of opposing teenage gangs in the 1950s with an LGBTQ theme! Will the teams set aside their differences to fight for what they have in common?” (http://rockandriotcomic.com/about)

Soft pastel palette, with a diverse cast of characters that kick butt. Lots of hijinks and intrigue.

“Three months ago, a thousand doors to another world opened at once, then slammed shut again. Since then one door remains open, hidden down the closed-off sidewalk of an abandoned street behind a mountain of broken things. The only person who wants to know what’s behind that mountian is a boy named Sep, and he is setting off into the unknown.

Three months ago, a girl named Raina came home to find her street, her house, her family and friends gone. She went after them.

Demon street is about the other kids who came through too, and the denizens and creatures they found there. It’s about quests and monsters and magic and choices.”
(http://www.demonstreet.co/about)

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This month we covered two of the Read Harder Challenges. Meaning that if you’ve been following along you’ve read two books focused around reading outside of your comfort zone. Which means you have twenty-two books left for the rest of the year. Go you!

For this spotlight let’s get into the next challenge, which is “Read a book that is set in the Middle East” For those of your who are interested there are a number of narratives set in the middle east. Previously narratives were about the “Mystery” and the “Danger” of the “Orient” that can be pretty harmful when not written by someone who actually is from the Middle East. Usually when an author notes how “exotic” someone looks, I’d steer clear. Also I would caution you to seek out authors that are of Middle Eastern descent. Remember guys, representation matters.

With that being said, the book spotlight of the challenge is the book “The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh.

“The Wrath and the Dawn” follows Khalid, the 18 year old Caliph of Khorasan. Every night he marries a new girl and every night ends with her execution. The country is in peril, families are hiding eligible women, everyone is trying to solve the mystery of why someone would do something this awful. 16 year old Shahrzad has had enough and volunteers to be married to Khalid. The reader soon learns that Shahrzad’s best friend was murdered in this fashion and she seeks revenge.

What I liked about this book is that language. Everything is told in a very lyrical style. You really understand setting and the scenery through the prose. The author has a style that makes you really fall into the story.

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Here at The Field Library we know that reading the classics can sometimes be a total bore. And that’s okay. Some times it is. And maybe what you consider modern classics will some day be boring to someone else 100 years from now. Imagine if in 2150 an English class has to read “The Fault in our Stars” and declares it boring?

(Imagined conversation)

Teacher: Okay guys, what did you think when Hazel first went to the support group?

Student: Oh my god, why couldn’t she just take the elevator. This is so BORING!!!!! AUGUSTUS IS A TERRIBLE BOYFRIEND!!!

Teacher: Take off your virtual reality googles and listen! It’s a metaphor!

(I would love it if years from now someone found this blog post and talked about how lame my imagined conversation was.)

Why do I bring that up? Because classic novels by authors such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, or Bram Stoker used to be the popular literature at the time. In fact, many of these authors were considered ‘trashy’ or ‘low-brow’ in their time. Shocking! In fact, Jane Austen was put down since she was first published, mostly because she was talking about “mundane” subjects like marriage and women’s problems. How dare women write about how hard it is to live in 19th century England? And now thousands of people everywhere are required to read her. So next time someone tells you that Gayle Foreman is trash, maybe you should bring that up, huh?

So, you might be thinking right now “Ugh, here goes the librarian, talking about classic literature” or “No way classical books are fun”

On the contrary,

There are many different ways of reading classical novels. There are also different ways of learning about the stories. One of them is through Youtube.

I’m sure a lot of you watch Youtube videos, Vines, all that stuff that the cool kids are watching. What’s cool about the internet these days is you get to see a lot of original content that you wouldn’t otherwise get to see. But did you know that there are web series based on classic novels? So you can watch a retelling of “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, adapted for modern times. This series is called “The Lizzie Bennett Diaries” (by the way the series has been adapted into a book. A book turned into a web-series, turned into a book. What a time to be alive)

So we have the usual characters that we know and love; Lizzie, Jane, Dracy, Bing Lee…..wait, you mean Mr. Bingley, right? Like I said, adapted for the modern age! Actual diverse casts and everything! What a time to be alive!

But wait, there’s more Austen!

Thanks to the wonders of Youtube there is more Jane Austen adaptations for everyone!

This adaptation is based off of Jane Austen’s novel “Emma”. Similar to the original text Emma is setting up her friends for the right matches while getting into trouble. In this version Emma is running her own match-making industry, very similar to match-making services today. Kingsley takes the form of the business bookkeeper (close in age to Emma in this version). In this series we explore what it means in modern times to set your friend up. Where is the line between being helpful and being hurtful. Maybe send this as a link to that one friend who’s ALWAYS trying to get you to go out with that one guy that you don’t like……

A favorite series of mine growing up was also “Anne of Green Gables” by LM Montgomery. Anne Shirley is a character that I and thousands of other people always have a soft spot for years after reading the books. And now that there is stirrings of a new adaptation, this is a perfect time to check out this web-series.

What I like about this series is the actors change around Anne’s problems to suit a modern generation. Instead of being an eleven year old girl, we have a 16 year old girl who has been in the Canadian foster system for most of her life. Instead of Marilla and Matthew wanting a boy for the farm, they want a boy because it’s “Just easier”. Instead of her insulting Mrs. Rachel Lyne to her face, her video where she vents about her is discovered (Ouch, lesson learned about putting drama on the internet). It’s these kind of situations where you realize that you might have the same problems as a fictional character from the 20th century. Like Anne, we all know what it’s like to not fit in. We all have said something out of anger and wish we could take it back. Hopefully though not of us have accidentally dyed their hair green.

The final series I want to talk about is a web-series based off of the novel “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This series changes a few things around. Unlike the novel no one has fought in WWI, there is no bright yellow car, and hopefully no one is disillusioned by the jazz age (maybe by dub-step)

Whatever you pick these series are a good-tie in to the original books. It’s also a really good way to look at a story with fresh eyes.

Comment below with that series you really like and what stories you’d want to see adapted into a web-series. I’m sure that if you can imagine it, there is a web-series based around it (The internet kind of works funny that way).

Also remember this would work for the Read Harder Challenge. This would fall under “Read a book then watch the movie.” Remember registration for “The Field Games: Read Harder Challenge 2016 is still